The Intruder
by Swashbucklist
Summary: A mysterious object breaches TOM and Sara's ship. It's origin is a mystery, and its intentions are unknown. How can TOM deal with an entity about which they know next to nothing?
1. Alien

Disclaimer: Toonami is copyright Cartoon Network. If I did own it, I would never have tried to give TOM a face.

Author's Note: This is a rendition of "The Intruder" a computer-animated series starring the hosts of Toonami, which used to occupy two hours of Cartoon Network's weekday schedule. The Intruder was a week-long event that unfolded with a new episode every day during the Toonami time slot. I've altered a few details and added some dialog. The original can easily be found at Youtube or toonamiarsenal(dot)com. Thanks for reading.

* * *

**Episode 1: Alien**

* * *

The _Absolution _came close to measuring a full kilometer from end to end, with its silvery-gray fuselage reaching forward into space and its brick-shaped engines humming with rhythmic power far behind. Its curvaceous length was decorated with sections of one-way glass that were blue when seen from the outside and clear when viewed from within the ship. One bump in particular was situated along the ship's dorsal, midway between its nose and its engines. It was a dome-shaped window with basketball contours in its reinforced glass. Beneath it, TOM sat on the _Absolution_'s bridge in front of a broad, raised disc, above which Sara's avatar was displayed on a rotating array of holographic windows. A news article had been published earlier that regarded his recently acquired occupation as a multimedia host, and he couldn't resist criticizing it.

"Ya know, on the phone they act one way, but what they write is totally different," he asserted while Sara, the _Absolution_'s onboard AI and his closest companion, listened patiently. "Huh ... 'Bubble-headed,'" TOM scoffed. "_They're_ not even in color."

"Well, you must admit, Tom, you are rather silly-looking," Sara acknowledged.

"Thanks for the morale-booster."

"Well, I—" An alert from Sara's ship-wide security systems abruptly snared her attention. She abandoned her conversational tone. "Intruder alert!"

"What're you talking about?" TOM asked. To himself he thought, _That was unexpected. I hope she isn't serious._

"I'm serious, Tom. Intruder. Alert!"

"Okay, stop it!" TOM relented. "Send in the Clydes."

At another location along the top of the _Absolution_'s lengthy dorsum, six tiny hatches popped open and two eyeball-like robots emerged. The Clydes swiftly navigated their way down and back to the ship's starboard engine nacelle where a third Clyde was already waiting. Its multiple lenses were directed at a puncture in the ship's armor. The hole was about one meter wide and had edges that were slightly singed, as though a superheated rock had pierced through.

As the Clydes stared curiously, TOM leaned forward in his chair, peering at the video they were sending. "What is that?" he wondered.

A blaring alarm filled the ship's interior. "The hull's been breached," Sara announced. "On the forty-ninth level, starboard side. I've sealed it off."

"Must have been a meteor or something," TOM mused as he observed the Clyde's video feed.

"Negative," said Sara. "There is no telltale distortion, nor are any serious scorch-marks present. There may have been heat, but the bulk of the damage was caused by some sort of dissolving agent."

Reaching a decision, TOM pushed himself off his chair. "I'm goin' out there."

Minutes later, he was in the port cargo bay. Along the nearest wall was a single row of jetpacks that stretched off into the distant corner. He stepped out in front of one and waited while a signal was sent to the device. It jumped off the wall and clamped onto his back with the force of a door slamming, making him stagger. "There's gotta be a better way to put these things on ..." he muttered as his feet departed from the deck and he glided awkwardly across the immense cargo bay. The bay doors opened, and he was on his way to the other side of the ship.

He'd wanted to exit from the port side for safety reasons, seeing as all he knew about the thing that had punctured his ship was that it was somewhere on (or _in_, as the case may be) the starboard wing. Feeling extra cautious, and also wanting to go a little wild with the jetpack, he took the long way around, swooping up toward the _Absolution_'s prow, looping around some of the dynamic hull design on top, then coming back on the other side. Alighting on the starboard engine wing, he found the Clydes waiting for him, still analyzing the entry point.

"Man, it ate right through the hull!" he exclaimed upon seeing the breach. It was slightly blackened around the edges, so he'd been right about the burning. Leaning over the hole to peer inside, he found that there was too much plating and wiring missing for it all to have been incinerated. Sara would have detected major heat signatures. There had definitely been more dissolving action going on like she had said.

"Do we know where it is?" he asked, placing his hands on the edge.

"No idea. It doesn't show up on any scanning tech." In the screens room, Sara was displaying the video feeds from all three Clydes, as well as her face, on the monitors. "There's massive system disruption down there."

"Any idea _what _it is?"

"No," she answered flatly.

Outside, TOM positioned a fresh piece of hull armor over the damaged area and got to work securing it. "Okay. Well, the hull is sealed, but keep the doors closed. I'm gonna go down there and check this thing out."

Meanwhile, down in the bowels of the engine fuselage, beyond severed cables, breached walls, and sundered support structures, something was moving not ten feet below where TOM currently stood. In the dark, a shapeless red mass stirred ominously. Immersing itself in the _Absolution_'s interior, it began to quietly carry out its one and only function.


	2. Haste Leads to Waste

Disclaimer: I don't own Toonami.

* * *

**THE INTRUDER**

**Episode 2: Haste Leads to Waste

* * *

**

The _Absolution_'s interior echoed fore to aft with alarm klaxons. TOM was able to ignore them all inside his elevator pod as it shot smoothly toward the lower levels of the ship. On the ride down, he kept himself entertained with a Kiefer B-9 plasma pistol, which he'd snatched before heading down to investigate. Tossing it up in the air, he caught the twirling weapon and struck a Double-O-Seven pose. "Any readings?" he asked.

"Uh ... no," Sara replied, slightly distracted by his antics. Most people just stood there listening to the music.

"What, then?"

"Please be careful," she urged him as he swung his gun-hand back and forth in swift movements. "We have no idea what this thing is."

"Eh, you worry too much," TOM said as he jumped into the air, spun two-hundred-seventy degrees, and landed in what he believed was a dynamic-looking crouch.

The elevator pod reached its stop, and the first thing to cross its threshold was the barrel of TOM's Kiefer. He moved cautiously at first, then took a few running strides down the hallway and jumped into the air, flipping his entire body forward and landing on his feet again. Reaching the end of the pristine, well-lit hallway, he came to one of the _Absolution_'s many circular doors. There was a red emergency light fixed in the center, and it was flashing furiously like all the rest throughout the ship.

"Okay ... open it up."

The two halves of the portal split open in opposite directions. Without hesitation, TOM walked through. The chamber he stepped into was a storage space that was one level down from the starboard cargo bay. It wasn't quite as spacious, but was convenient for light storage. The first thing TOM picked up on was the shadowy dimness that pervaded the room.

"Those lights are off?" he wondered aloud.

"They shouldn't be," Sara replied, just as confused.

"Hit the emergency lights."

Sara activated the storage room's auxiliary lighting, casting an eerie red glow over everything. TOM hustled in quietly, the laser sight on his weapon sweeping back and forth across the empty floor. He emerged from behind a corner, bringing the plasma pistol up in a two-handed grip. There was nothing there, but he ducked back out of sight anyway, mostly for fun. When he leaned out a second later and peered about the red-limned chamber, there was still nothing. Normally, the sound of the engines would be vibrating through this place, but they'd been on standby all day, and would remain so until the situation was resolved.

"Be vewy, vewy quiet," he said without bothering to disguise his voice for the impression. "I'm hunting awiens."

"Tom, be serious."

Twirling the pistol in the air again, he caught it and touched the glowing coils that ran along its barrel to make sure it was still hot with power. They produced a crackling sound, and he found the gesture every bit as cool as slipping on a pair of shades.

Rounding the corner, he crept into the storage room, keeping a wary eye on everything his laser-sight darted across. He kept his back to the row of windows that allowed some starlight in, but it was still a little dim. The light within the radiation symbol on his protruding abdomen bobbed up and down ridiculously as he stalked along the wall.

"If this were a movie," he said, starting to get bored without finding anything. "This is the part where the alien would start killing people off."

"We are only two people on this ship, Tom. Now quit joking around."

"Whose joking? I'm hunting an extraterrestrial object in my own spaceship with a plasma pistol, this is so cool! And you could count the Clydes."

"You're safe anyway," Sara said, relenting for a moment to his whimsical train of thought. "The comic relief usually doesn't die."

"Funny."

"Do you see anything down there?"

"No, not yet."

Scattered throughout the place both individually and in stacks were pressure-sealed crates. Behind a small cluster of them, the darkness barely concealed a strange slithering motion. TOM, too preoccupied with looking like a slick action movie character, didn't see it.

Not much more than a year ago, he'd been instrumental in the rescue of a construction colony, and had emerged from the ordeal without any serious loss to his metallic hide. So whatever was hiding on his ship didn't inspire a great deal of concern in him.

"Sara," he said impatiently. "Are you getting anything yet?"

"No," she answered. "Still no readings at ... wait."

"What?"

"I'm detecting a little movement down there. Some crates were just nudged a few inches, but I can't detect what did it. There's definitely something in there with you, though."

"Okay, so what is it?" TOM asked, growing anxious as he swept his Kiefer back the way he'd come, then forward again. "And _where_ is ...?" He trailed off as his gaze settled on the shadows directly across from him, and made out a bizarre mass of syrupy red that was undulating back in its dark hiding place. He definitely wasn't alone. _Back to the first question,_ he thought. "_What_ is—?"

Suddenly, the thing launched out of the darkness straight for TOM. He barely had time for a cry of terror, let alone for firing off a shot, before it smashed violently into him. The blow was so quick and savage that he was knocked off his feet in the same instant that the reinforced window behind him smashed apart to make way for his flying body. The attack had taken place in less than a second.

"Tom!" Sara cried out. She was too little and too late to do anything but feel the link between them cut off. His reactor had shut down and his signal was lost to her. And while she was confined to the _Absolution_, his immobile shell was hurtling away from the ship into endless blackness.

"Tom ...? _Tom ...!_" She received no answer, and her words echoed into nothing.


	3. Aversion

Disclaimer: Still don't own Toonami.

* * *

**THE INTRUDER**

**Episode 3: Aversion**

* * *

The three active Clydes were all darting about in a loose party outside the _Absolution_, sweeping their scanners in a more-or-less organized search pattern using the highest settings they were capable of. But there was a lot of space out there to search, and they could to nothing without a signal from TOM's powerless, deactivated body. As long as their automaton inventor was unconscious, the Clydes were useless.

AT the moment, TOM was equally incapable of doing anything to save himself. To avoid damage when the intruder had struck him, his power supply and cognitive systems had shut down, much like going into a coma. By the time they came back online of their own accord, he would be too far away for help of any kind.

While drifting away like a discarded toy, he unknowingly entered an asteroid field that had been lingering off the _Absolution_'s port side for the last hour or so. With the ship's shields present, the floating army of space debris hadn't been considered a hazard until now. Unlike the _Absolution_, TOM was breakable and extremely vulnerable. His trajectory carried him straight past a frozen rock, mere inches from smashing into it. Had he been conscious, he would have commented on the close call.

The next asteroid, however, he struck.

But rather than worsening his already damaged condition, the collision had the same effect as striking a mechanical appliance to get it started. TOM shook his giant round head and glanced at the lights in his potbelly and hands to make sure his power was coming back online. The Clydes immediately responded to his signal and came racing out to him.

"Ugh. Hey, can you get me a jetpack out here?" he asked after a groan, observing a crack in his visor. Although shaken up, he was quickly regaining his cool.

"On the way," Sara promptly responded. "What happened?"

"No idea," TOM replied. In about a third of the time it had taken for him to get so far away from the _Absolution_, the jetpack caught up to him. A minute later, he was inside the ship and floating into the communications room. He landed in the center of its broad, disc-shaped platform surrounded by armature-mounted screens. Sara was using the screens to display her face and some ship-wide statistics.

Prying the propulsion unit off his back, TOM grumbled, "Let's see it."

"The whole thing?" Sara asked.

"Yeah." TOM sheepishly scuffed his foot against the floor while Sara replayed the Clydes' recordings of his failed encounter with the Intruder. "Hey, do you know where it is?"

"Yes; it's still on level forty-nine. But ... it's kind of on forty-eight and fifty as well."

"What?"

"It's _growing._"

* * *

Down on one of these levels, a Clyde was approaching the Intruder. It scanned the blob visually, providing Sara with her first clear analyzation. Once the Clyde determined that none of its other equipment could discern any information other than a 3-D outline, it came in for a closer look. That was a bad idea on the Clyde's part.

The two remaining Clydes floated around the corner just in time to see the Intruder's pulsating mass pulling something inside it. They jerked to a halt and adjusted their sensors. Their companion was nowhere in sight until the red blob gave a spurt, and a tiny lense came rolling out across the floor. The hovering droids watched it clatter to a stop between them. They glanced at one another, then back at the Intruder, and slowly drifted back a few inches, hoping they were out of reach.

* * *

"It's eating the Clydes," Sara said.

TOM was only half-listening, focused more on the replays of the storage room incident. The same scene had been recorded from different angles. "Man, that could've been handled better," he commented. Returning to the current line of discussion, he said with exasperation, "This is the weirdest day! What does this thing want?"

"Tough to say. It ate through the hull quite easily. Maybe it's just hungry?" TOM thought the tone with which she proposed this idea made it sound like she were talking about a small, cute animal that had infiltrated someone's kitchen. He watched as one of her screens brought up a three-dimensional diagram of the Intruder. "It's ... formless."

She was right, TOM thought. It was just a big, asymmetrical slug. He changed the subject to his deflated ego. "How did I get blasted?"

"Carelessness?" Sara suggested with mock-snideness.

"Thanks. But now what do we do?" The moment he asked this, another alarm went off.

"It's moving," Sara informed him.

"Where?"

"Heading through the ship's skeleton toward the starboard engine." She brought up a forward-facing 2-D visual of the engine's blueprint with a large icon marking the Intruder's progress.

"_Sweeet ..._" TOM sighed, letting his shoulders sag. He pointed to the screen's engine schematic, asking, "Has it left the room on forty-nine yet?"

"Affirmative."

"I'm goin' down there." With a little less enthusiasm in his jog than the last time he went alien-hunting, TOM proceeded to the elevator pod. His feet alighted on the touch-sensitive light in the middle of the floor, sending the elevator into motion.

More red-limned darkness marked his route through the bowels of the ship, deep shadows broken by crimson bars of emergency lighting. The constant shift of light and dark was playing so many tricks on his vision that he had to skid to a stop when the floor opened up into a gaping chasm.

"Whoa!" The wound in the ship's innards was so wide that his voice seemed to echo, despite the lack of sound waves. It penetrated multiple levels, and as TOM stared into it, he shuddered at the knowledge that somewhere down there, the ship's engine was being consumed by the mysterious and deadly thing that had nearly killed him earlier.

Sara interrupted his ominous musings. "I'm charging your blaster. Come on!"

TOM glanced up in the general direction of the bridge and made placating gestures with his hands. "Wait a minute, hold on. Let's, uh—"

"It's eating through the ship, almost to the starboard engine!"

"Eating through the—?"

"We need to stop it now!"

TOM sighed and relented to the state of urgency. "Okay, okay, I'm on my way." Jogging back toward the elevator pod, he lamented that he was the only one who was capable of doing anything to save the _Absolution._ It was unlikely that a second round with the Intruder would go any better than his last one, but there was no other choice.


	4. Do or Die

Disclaimer: I don't own Toonami, and the information Sara provides was taken from a Toonami-related website. I don't recall the address or who typed it up to begin with. There also may be one or two references to films that I don't own either. Basically, I don't own anything at all ... this is not helping my self-esteem.

* * *

**THE INTRUDER**

**Episode 4: Do Or Die

* * *

**

TOM reflected nervously on his previous encounter with the Intruder as the elevator pod once again dived through the _Absolution._ It occurred to him that this scene unfolding was a bit too familiar: him in an elevator, with a gun, hunting an alien on the lowermost levels of his ship. It hadn't gone so well the first time. Luckily, he had a few advantages for round two, like a better weapon. He extended his arm and turned his wrist back and forth, examining either side of the Kiefer A-1 rifle he was holding. It had three settings, all of them more powerful than the Kiefer B-9 pistol he'd lost earlier. And in addition to the improved artillery, he also had a jetpack for speed and maneuverability. Plus the lights would be on, and he knew what to expect from his previous experience. Incidentally, he also knew what the Intruder was capable of, which made him feel like his preparations were the equivalent of adding an ace to an already bad hand. But there was no turning back now. If he did nothing, the whole ship would soon be gone.

"Nearly there," Sara informed him.

The convex elevator door slid open. TOM glided out on his jetpack with the rifle across his chest, ready to take on anything (but cautiously this time). He waited for Sara to open the heavy security door, readying himself and letting a sense of resolve settle into him. The large, heavy portal disengaged and pushed up, and he once again entered the danger zone.

"Have you got anything?" he asked, not referring to Sara's sensors this time.

"Yes," she responded.

"Well, don't keep me in suspense," TOM said as he swerved around a corner. "I'm getting enough of that down here."

"It won't help much, but to give us a general idea of our situation. I found reports suggesting a multitude of universal 'urban' legends regarding the same thing we seem to be dealing with. In UC 194," she began, "a galactic way station in Alpha Quadrant was destroyed by an unknown entity. It's described as a 'gelatinous, ever-expanding life-form that eats metal and is impervious to energy weapons of any kind.'"

TOM glanced down at his A-1. "Now you tell me."

"That was decades ago, Tom. We have much more advanced weaponry now, so I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"I'm counting on it. Any more horror stories to set the mood?"

"Let's see ... a deep space mining vessel, 'Cygna 5', was destroyed, and eighty-five percent of the crew was picked up days later. Then an Earth scientific research probe was lost after reporting contact with a 'large amoebae-like being' floating in deep space, and ten solar years after that, in UC 220, a combat vessel, 'Horizon' was sent to patrol the entity's last-known location, but was never heard from again ..." She paused for a second. "Tom?"

"Yeah?"

"Wrong way."

"Oh ... _Right._" TOM brought his jetpack to a halt, spun around in midair, and continued in the opposite direction.

He hardly noticed when something moved in the shadows behind him.

TOM needed to focus, Sara decided, so she put their communication on standby. As she did, TOM couldn't help thinking about the Intruder's immunity to her scanners. He knew which section of the ship it was in, but if it had moved, and was going to attack him from another direction, he would never see it coming. And as he considered this, another thought occurred to him: if the Intruder were immune to the most advanced scanning technology on the market, then how much help would a mass-produced weapon really be?

Without warning, the thing behind him left its hiding place in the intersecting hallway and flew at him. TOM, barely sensing the ambush, landed. But he had no time to pivot before the thing struck him in the back of the head. Turning around, he swiftly brought his weapon to bear on a shuddering, terrified Clyde.

He sighed partly in exasperation and partly in relief. "You know what? Come with me." He gestured and lifted off the floor again, Clyde following. He was past the cargo section where he'd first encountered the Intruder, so he angled downward, taking a service conduit to reach the starboard engine nacelle. In no time, he was back in a normal network of hallways. Clyde constantly glanced in every direction for danger. A minute of tense silence later, TOM alighted on the floor just before a bend in the current hallway. Down at the end of this passage was where Sara had theorized the Intruder would be. Not wanting to take any chances, he whispered to Clyde, "Go check it out." Clyde hesitated for a second, then turned and tried to wander away in the opposite direction. "Hey!" TOM snapped, pointing. "Go check it out!"

With its command response parameters overrunning its self-preservation directives, Clyde floated obediently off to investigate. TOM watched it go, and then nearly jumped out of his hard, synthetic skin when an explosive flash lit up the corridor, signifying the end of Clyde. Apparently, his quarry was not down the hallway, but right around the corner.

He shook his head, sighing inwardly. _If you want something done right ..._ Making sure his rifle was prepped, he steeled his nerves and shot power into his jetpack, darting around the corner and landing directly in front of his adversary.

There it was ... The Intruder.

"Oh, man. This thing's gotten a lot bigger."

It looked like thick red Jell-O being poured down a shaft, squeezing against the floor, the ceiling, and both walls. The illumination from every single light fixture was smothered as the thing oozed over them, an indication that it was completely opaque. Although the thing was clearly a liquid life-form (TOM had never heard of such a thing), it seemed to have no trouble maintaining a semblance of a shape. Otherwise it would have been a puddle on the floor and he'd be ankle-deep in red goo.

_Okay, enough scientific speculation,_ he thought to himself, _I have janitor duty._

Taking his first aim at the bizarre enemy, he fired the Kiefer A-1's cutting laser, slicing a line through it. The gash sealed up before he'd even finished firing. He hadn't done one iota of damage. And on top of that, he had made himself a threat to the mucus. With inexorable intent, the Intruder oozed out of its current position and began sliding toward TOM. The small automaton took off immediately, like a fly reacting to a flyswatter. He zoomed back the way he'd come and landed about ten meters away.

The Intruder wasn't moving very fast, so TOM figured he had some time. Pumping the A-1 to activate its second setting, he directed the barrel down the length of the corridor and unleashed a bright, sizzling, electron beam. The focused beam struck the Intruder dead center, arms of discharged energy whipping over its surface. But the giant mutant blob didn't even slow down. On the contrary, it began crawling toward him even faster. TOM felt his resolve turning to dread, realizing he was nearly out of luck.

An instant later, he was hurtling through the _Absolution_'s engine nacelle network as fast as the jetpack could carry his tiny body. He flew dangerously around corners, once bumping his head and ricocheting into the floor.

"Tom, be careful!" Sara warned.

"Not an option right now!" he shot back, seeing the massive red goo looming up behind him.

Somehow during the chase, he had managed to lose his way again in the ship's bowels. With the metal-consuming thing right on his heels, there was no time to find it, so he headed toward what felt like the center of this section of the ship ... even though that meant doubling back to where he and the Intruder had begun their pursuit. But he was in luck: the hallway ended in shorn metal and opened up into a cavern that hadn't been their before the Intruder had dissolved three or four whole levels. He had been standing at the edge of this pit ten minutes ago, not wanting to go in; now he was at the bottom, still not wanting to be stuck down here.

Tilting backward, he swept up away from the damaged floor plating and shot up past deck after deck, reaching the rim of the hole in seconds. There he alighted and stared back down into the darkness. The red ooze was gushing from the passage he'd just exited, and was now pooling in the middle of the obliterated area. With so much space to observe it, TOM now had an appreciation for its sheer volume. The thing was gigantic. And if the strongest weapon on board only made it aggressive, then there was truly nothing he could do against it. The _Absolution_ would be gone in less than an hour.

The Intruder somehow sensed where he was from three stories below and launched a large glob of a tendril at him. TOM jumped back with a shout, watching as the arm punched through the deck plating he'd been standing on, dissolving it instantly. Then it began worming its way toward him, the rest of its mass quickly following.

Retreating full throttle again, TOM spotted the passage leading to the elevator shaft. "Sara! Send the elevator pod up to my level and seal that door!" he shouted, ducking under the heavy security door as it was closing. But just before it locked into place, the Intruder's gooey red fingers flowed underneath it, and the entire hatch was quickly absorbed.

"I can't seal that door," Sara reported.

TOM set down in front of the empty elevator shaft as he watched the overflowing red blob surge toward him at his dead-end. "I don't think I can stop this thing," he said in a low, hopeless tone, partly to Sara and partly to himself. _But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try!_ He pumped the slide on his Kiefer one last time, arming its third and final setting, the most powerful of the three. If this didn't work, the Kiefer Corporation may as well shut down production.

Then there was hope: the elevator pod reached its destination and opened up behind him to accept passengers.

_Here goes ..._ TOM thought, ready to take his one final shot at the monster before he even thought about fleeing. He held the trigger down, letting the machine work up the necessary energy. Its power coils glowed, and the radiance spread through the length of the weapon until, after what felt like an eternity with the Intruder bearing down on him, the rifle's energy built up into a screaming ball of power at the end of barrel. _Smile, you son of a—_

The gun's massive kickback launched him into the air, sending him flying upwards and backwards to crash into the corner of the elevator pod. The Kiefer was knocked out of his grip, clattering onto the threshold. TOM hit the floor face-down, and was barely able to push himself up. He was too shocked and dizzy to see what was transpiring in the passage ahead.

Down the corridor streaked a high-yield photon grenade on a straight, unstoppable path toward the Intruder, glowing and scintillating like a softball-sized star. It lit the place up like nothing else could, and upon impact with the Intruder, an even more powerful burst of light followed. The devastating eruption shook the _Absolution_'s entire starboard side from its core and outward. A moment later, all was quiet.

The shuddering of the ship had helped TOM get some of his senses back into place after they'd been knocked loose. He glanced up, but was still too dazed to interpret much. He looked back down at the floor and rubbed his giant round head.

In the passage before him, there was nothing left but a wall of smoke.

Suddenly, the smoke was sucked into the body of an angry red blob that was now surging through the damaged corridor faster than ever.

TOM staggered to his feet, not yet aware of what was about to go down. Then the sludge filled his vision, and he didn't even have time to think about moving the elevator. It flooded in like a wall of pure menace, swirling around TOM's short body and filling half the pod. "No, no wait ... NO, _NOOOO!_"

He screamed in horror and desperation, but the Intruder rose above his head, swamping him and absorbing him into its mass. He could feel his skin dissolving into nothing inside of it, and he knew the rest of him would immediately follow. In one last attempt to grab onto something, anything at all no matter how hopeless his survival seemed, he forced his hand up out of the slime. Freed for a moment from the Intruder's molecular breakdown, it was already scourged and pockmarked like the rest of his body had been a split second ago. As everything within the Intruder dissipated and became lost, the hand ceased moving. Then, with nothing left to hold it up, it sank quietly back into the ooze.

The Intruder collected itself and vacated the pod, sliming back into the corridor to continue its consumption of the ship that TOM had failed to save.

"Tom?" Sara didn't get a response. She was not entirely sure of what had just happened, but if anything was certain, this was not like the earlier incident when he had been jettisoned into space, unconscious. She had a much more ominous feeling this time around: it was not merely his signal that had been lost.

"_Tom!_"

She would never receive an answer. Deep within the darkened, ravaged bowels of the doomed _Absolution,_ everything that the Toonami host had once been no longer existed ... TOM was dead.


	5. Please Stand By

Disclaimer: I don't own Toonami.

* * *

**THE INTRUDER**

**Episode 5: Please Stand By  


* * *

**

The last half-hour aboard the _Absolution_ had been intense, but now there was a lot less happening. TOM was gone, and the black ether the ship drifted through had never felt more desolate to Sara. She almost felt isolated in it, despite being an advanced AI with superior navigational skills and universal communication frequencies. Right now they meant very little. On the outside of the ship, the Intruder had nearly finished absorbing the starboard engine. It was an ugly red splotch on the otherwise gray-and-blue vessel. Soon, the cargo section would be gone, followed by the rest of the ship. Once that happened, Sara herself would disappear with it ... if no one could save her. And she knew one person who could still do that.

"Initiating activation sequence," she said aloud. Aboard the bridge, visual representations of the programs she was activating appeared on her screens. "Downloading AI Matrix."

Her attention was now directed to a reinforced, high-security chamber deep within the _Absolution_'s guts. The inside of the chamber was densely illuminated by strong emerald lighting, and was occupied by a small series of pods. A glass-like layer of smooth, hardened gel sealed each pod. Off to the left, inside one of them, the body it contained raised its head and glanced around while a few power-indication LED lights came to life.

"Tom, can you hear me?" Sara asked more urgently than tentatively. "Tom, I can't open that door, I need you on the bridge."

"Okay ..." the new automaton growled, "_... this thing is officially making me CRAZY!_" With a firm kick, the layer sealing his pod was shattered, and a fresh, sleek, action-ready TOM stepped out onto the deck.

Rather than a stubby unit with limbs sticking out of it, TOM's new torso vaguely mimicked human pectoral muscles, and his arms and legs were lean and strong-looking with all the right joints in place. The shade of blue that filled out his torso, head, and about fifty percent of the components his limbs were assembled from was a slightly darker blue than before. The sleek visor on his motorcycle helmet-shaped head reflected the room and its lights as he rose to his full, slightly greater, height. "Whoa ... wh-what's goin' on?" His voice was more-or-less similar to what it had been in his previous body, but a little deeper and smoother.

"You were destroyed," Sara explained empathetically.

"What the hell? I got _destroyed?_" Shrugging off the notion, TOM turned and left the resurrection room. He proceeded to the _Absolution_'s bridge with a casual stride, using the time to examine more details of his new form. He noticed an extra digit on each hand, and saw that the big three-bladed reactor symbol on his stomach had been replaced by a smaller one on the left side of his chest.

"Tom, the Intruder has completely taken over the starboard engine. It's eating as we speak; there's not much time."

TOM reached the bridge while she spoke and took a seat, too distracted to notice he fit the chair now. "Okay, uh, what do we do?"

She brought up a series of engine schematics that displayed the infected area of the ship. The Intruder-consumed parts were highlighted, which meant pretty much the entire diagram. "The starboard engine is totally obsolete," she told him. "We need to cut that thing loose before it consumes the whole ship."

TOM had no enthusiasm for her idea, and said so. "You gotta be kidding me."

"No, I'm not! We've run out of options."

"But—"

"No!" She wasn't leaving him any room for argument. "We've already lost an engine, three Clydes, and a TOM. This is getting costly!"

The _Absolution_'s new captain finally relented. "Fine, wha'do I do?"

"You need to set charges on the starboard wing." She summoned up more information on-screen, marking the bombs' positions. "One on the outside, one on the inside."

TOM suggested, "Why don't _you_ set the one on the inside?"

"Because, _TOM,_ I can't move," Sara replied with more attitude than he'd ever heard from her before.

Sighing and throwing his hands up in frustration, TOM pushed himself out of the chair. "Alright, let's get this show on the road." He departed from the bridge, mentally preparing himself for the emotional hurt that would come with blowing off a piece of his ship.

* * *

Minutes later, TOM performed a smooth landing on the outside of the _Absolution_'s starboard wing, slightly below the cargo hold and high above the engine nacelle. In each hand, he carried a rectangular package with a handle, like a pair of portable toolkits.

Kneeling, he set one on the surface of the hull, watching it automatically magnetize itself and open. A gentle touch, and the charge immediately began a countdown sequence at seven minutes.

He rose and walked away from the timed charge, stopping only once to look over his shoulder at it. This was the last he would ever see of this engine, part of a set that had carried him across the universe. But it needed to be done, or there would be no _ship_ that had carried him across the universe. He pushed the feelings away and continued with the job at hand.

* * *

"Where to now?" he asked once he was back in the cargo bay.

"Level AA-23," Sara replied. "And there's bad news."

"Yeah, what's that?" TOM asked as he plucked the used jetpack from his back and tossed it aside.

"The Intruder has accelerated its rate of consumption. You need to get a move on."

TOM glanced toward the side of the ship the Intruder was immersed in. "How much of a move on?"

"Run! Now!"

TOM took off down the hallway like a linebacker, feet pounding the metal grid and hand gripping the explosive device. He reached the elevator and stomped the discular floor panel, sending it into motion. After that, though, there was nothing to do but wait while it took him down.

_Waiting in the elevator with my briefcase ..._ he thought, looking at the explosive device, which did indeed resemble a briefcase, _... like just another day at the office. All I need's a tie and a cuppa coffee._ He tapped his foot impatiently. When the door slid back open, he tore down the hall again, praying the Intruder hadn't swarmed beyond the point Sara had marked.

"I've bumped a few minutes off the timers on the charges," Sara informed him. "Hurry up."

The doors parted, and TOM balked a little at the sight of the room. There were still plenty of bulkheads and computers there, but nearly seventy percent of them had been absorbed by red goo. Easing cautiously inside, he set the device down on the floor. It was already synced with the one on the hull, so he saw no reason to stick around.

"That was easy enough," he murmured, slinking away.

Sara counted off the last few digits. "Three ... two ... one."

Back in the elevator with the door shut, TOM saw the explosion surge down the hallway toward him, not unlike the Intruder had earlier. This time, however, he was protected by the reinforced bubble of the elevator pod. He waited for a minute, watching the blast reach its zenith of intensity and fade away. In a second, he'd be looking down a horribly damaged hallway into the blackness of space. He already missed the engine.

Outside, the explosion was much grander than TOM had witnessed. The blast struck outward on a vertical plane that was parallel with the ship, separating the wing without damaging the side of the vessel. It was a clean cut. With bits of debris trailing from its ruptured end, the amputated piece of the _Absolution_ gently floated away, leaving the gigantic starship crippled in the middle of deep space.

And with any luck, the sundered engine would go even deeper into space, never to encounter any other life form for as long as it existed.

That, unfortunately, was unlikely.

* * *

A/N: Like episode four, I built a little on the original content to make the climax a tad more thrilling, though it would have been difficult and very distracting to go as far as I did with episode four (that was our big action sequence, not this). For episode five, the only thing really missing was a time limit. The last three episodes will collected into a single installment in my fanfic, so there's just one more chapter to go! Also, I'm aware that "discular" isn't a word. It was made up on the spot and it felt right. Sorry if that bugs you. *pulls out billfold and flashes a shiny Creative License badge*


	6. Pardon Our Dust

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of Toonami.

* * *

**THE INTRUDER**

**Episode 6: Pardon Our Dust

* * *

**

"The nearest facility is seven light-years from here," Sara informed TOM as she marked the location on a universal map with a blinking dot. She lit up another point on the map to make their current position relevant. "There."

"Great, right in our backyard," TOM said with no small amount of sarcasm. "Punch it and call'em up." He was slouching in his chair, taking advantage of how much better it fit him now. Once Sara had set them on course, TOM strode to the communications room. His mood was improved slightly by the fact that he'd reached it more quickly than he would have earlier that day. He pushed a button to open a comm channel. "StarPower, this is the _Absolution._"

A silver client liaison with a humanoid shape and a thin visor with light gleaming from within it appeared on-screen. "Hello, _Absolution,_" she greeted in a synthesized, singsong voice.

"We're on our way to you as we speak, but I've lost an engine," TOM explained. "We may take a while. Can I get Parts and Service?"

"One moment please." Her image was replaced by a stocky, yellow, rubber-skinned robot with a gasmask-like face.

"Parts and Service," he said gruffly.

"Yeah, this is the _Absolution,_ L-Class Deep Space Explorer. We've lost our starboard engine and need a replacement. We won't be there for about ... I dunno, a month?"

"Okay, so ya want Designs?"

_Why would I want to pick new designs?_ TOM thought, already confused and worried that this would be more difficult than just placing the order and flying there. "We'd actually like to get the same one we just had."

"Yeah, the model you have's been recalled due to some instability that showed up after a period of time. They'd get fluctuations, intermittent power outputs ... that kinda thing."

"Well, we never had any problem."

"Uh-huh ... I've got other lines on hold, so d'you want Designs or would ya like to call back?"

"Okay," TOM sighed, "what else have you got?"

Sara received the images the PS droid sent. She produced them on three different display screens and used their mechanical arms to group them next to the window showing the visual link to the PS manager. One of them, the Talon ST, was sleek and hefty. The other two, the Vermeer Mark IV and the Harper GT88, had a much narrower appearance, but showed equal style. TOM glimpsed over them, thought for a second, and said, "We'll call you back."

"Suuure thing." The comm channel clicked off.

"Which one do you like?" TOM asked his companion.

"I don't know," Sara replied. Engine styles weren't exactly her thing, since her job was just to run them. She decided to download their technical aspects later to see which ones fit into her systems most comfortably. "Either way, we've got to get two."

TOM thought for a minute until an idea sprang into his mind. "Why don't we just leave it up to the Toonami viewers?" he suggested, motioning to the engine models. "We can put these babies up on the website and let them vote it out. I mean, we're always on the lookout for ways to let the fans participate, and they're the ones who're gonna be seeing the outside of the ship every intro, so, right?"

"Not a bad idea," Sara commended. "Let's do it."

"Great," TOM said, gently pumping his fist. "Are there any surviving Clydes?"

"We have three."

"Send one down. I'll make the announcement."

* * *

Weeks later, still trailing smoke from the explosion, as well as gasses and chemicals that were used in some of the ship's mechanical systems, the _Absolution_ reached the StarPower deep space facility. It was a towering superstructure that actually dwarfed the Deep Space Explorer. A few extended sections rotated slowly around its complex, scepter-shaped main body. Nearer to the bottom were metal-and-glass docking sleeves, all big enough to accommodate the largest ships that had been built to this day.

The _Absolution_ glided carefully into one of the structurally ribbed docking sleeves, the stars remaining visible through reinforced glass that was built into its framework. Walking back into the communications room, TOM watched through the panoramic window as deep-space construction machines swarmed about the place. Everything within the facility appeared slow-moving, but it all proceeded without a hitch. He reached the disc-shaped platform and called up Parts and Service again.

"Hey, this is the _Absolution,_ we're ready. We want a pair of the Talon ST's."

"Aw, really?" the PS manager said, as though scoffing at a foolish idea. "I could'a sworn you were gonna go for those Harpers. Way more efficient, y'know."

"Hey, the people have spoken and we need a pair of the ST's," TOM insisted, tapping the screen that the engines were displayed on.

"Alright, but it'll take a while."

"Whatever," TOM said offhandedly.

"I'll get the 'bots on it right away."

Glad to be finished dealing with that guy, TOM retreated into the ship to get busy on some other repairs. Meanwhile, an army of construction droids and scrap carriers spilled into the maintenance bay and headed for the damaged exterior of the _Absolution.

* * *

_

Not much longer than a week was needed for the repairs and the port engine replacement to get done. Eventually, everything was hooked up, sealed up, and polished off. TOM, who hadn't been happy about sacrificing a piece of his ship, let alone sending its perfectly-functioning companion piece to the scrap heap, had let the idea grow on him after checking out the ST's technical specs. Then after his first real look at them, a twin pair of sleek, gleaming powerhouses fixed up and ready to go, he'd been psyched.

Jogging up to his chair, he seated himself. "Well, I guess that's it," he said eagerly to Sara.

"New engines are online and ready to go," Sara replied, knowing how much he wanted to get them moving.

He mimed cracking his knuckles. "Man, I can't _wait_ to open these babies up!"

The svelte, silver client liaison droid appeared on-screen with Sara. "_Absolution,_ you're clear to launch."

"Acknowledged," TOM said, throwing her a casual salute.

A low, thrumming pulsation reverberated through the length of the ship. It was soft enough to fade into the back of the mind but strong enough to be noticed in sound and feeling. After a second, it settled into a steady, vibrating hum that was so soft it almost felt like a mental massage. The _Absolution_ began a smooth glide out of the bay. The Talon ST's were ever so gentle, but TOM could easily feel their immense power just waiting to be pushed up.

"This is _awesome!_"

These engines were stronger and more sensitive than any TOM had ever felt. The silver-and-blue starcraft accelerated a few notches, finally clearing the docking sleeve and leaving the StarPower facility behind.

Also left in the ship's wake, though not a single person noticed it as it drifted by, was a tiny red glob that was floating languidly and harmlessly through the cold vacuum. Soon, the red matter passed beyond sensor range and vanished, perhaps forever or perhaps not, into the black, infinite cosmos.

~fin~

* * *

Post Script: The staff for The Intruder went above and beyond the financial limits they had to create it, and I'm so glad they did. It was a great revolution in interactive television, and totally worth all the effort. If only more people had been into it, TOM and Sara may even have had their own animated series today. We can dream, can't we? That's one thing Toonami let some of us know.

Thanks for checking out my third Toonami fanfiction. I hope you enjoyed it. Remember, the revolution has been televised.


End file.
